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Briefing Document: Douglas Harding – “To Be and Not To Be: That Is The Answer”

   

Introduction:

This document analyzes excerpts from Douglas Harding’s “To Be and Not To Be: That Is The Answer,” a work that explores a radical shift in perspective about the nature of self, reality, and divinity. Harding invites readers to engage in direct experiential inquiry, moving away from conceptual beliefs and towards a direct perception of their true nature. The book consistently emphasizes the primacy of “looking” rather than “thinking,” and challenges conventional notions of selfhood and our place in the cosmos.

   

Main Themes and Ideas:

   

The “Treasure Trove” Within:

• Harding begins by presenting the idea that a priceless “treasure” is hidden in plain sight, at our very center, “in the Place you are looking out of.” He implores the reader to look directly and see what they find, instead of believing or disbelieving. This implies a direct, experiential path to discovery rather than reliance on faith or doctrine.
  • Quote: “Here, at your very Centre and Home-base, in the Place that’s closer to you than your breathing, in the Place you are looking out of, shines this precious jewel.”

    

The Cosmic Hierarchy and the Nature of Self:

• Harding describes a journey through the cosmic hierarchy, from galaxies down to quarks, demonstrating our embeddedness within it. He then reverses the direction, inviting the reader to journey up their arm to the point where all concepts of form disappear: “to the No-thing, to the immense Space.”
• This illustrates the paradox of our being both an individual and an integral part of the whole, and the vastness of the space we occupy at the “center” of our experience.
  • Quote: “Surely to what, on present evidence, is the absence of neck, of adam’s apple, of chin, of everything. To the No-thing, to the immense Space, to the Wide-Awake (repeat Wide-Awake) Emptiness or Clarity, to the welcoming Openness that greets you at journey’s end.”
• Harding also emphasizes the seemingly paradoxical nature of our physical makeup; that while we perceive ourselves as solid and distinct, we are comprised of countless smaller entities, right down to mostly empty space. This highlights the illusion of solidity and separation that underlies our everyday perception.
  • Quote: “We girls and boys are made of millions and millions of tiny animals of many species…And each in turn is made of non-living things called molecules that are laws unto themselves… And the same can be said of the atoms they consist of, which are mostly empty space.”

    

The “Cloverleaf Junction”: Integrating Different Paths:

• This section suggests that a balanced approach involves embracing different paths of life (“boxing the compass”), integrating service, devotion, and wisdom. Harding uses the example of Ramakrishna, who embodied different spiritual paths, and how his life was a convergence of different routes.
  • Quote: “Our job is to box the compass, to allow ourselves to ripen into all-rounders, each in his or her own fashion.”

    

The Elevenfold Liberation:

• Harding outlines eleven qualities or “lifelines” that represent a profound shift in self-perception, each a pathway to liberation:
  • (1) Boundless: Recognizing our limitless nature.
  • (2) Pure: Understanding our inherent purity, despite perceived “sins.”
  • (3) Free: Emphasizing the spontaneity and unpredictability of our actions, as opposed to determinism.
  • (4) Being: Identifying with “Being” itself, the only one who can truly say “I AM.”
  • (5) Here: Realizing the boundless nature of “here,” being infinitely elastic in size.
  • (6) Now: Acknowledging our timeless presence, where the present moment is all that exists.
  • (7) Self-Originating: Understanding that we are the source of our own existence.
  • (8) Aware: Recognizing our essential awareness and capacity for consciousness.
  • (9) At Peace: Embracing the inherent peace and stillness that is our true nature.
  • (10) All Sentient Beings: Identifying with all sentient beings.
  • (11) You: Understanding that the solution to our perceived separateness is to recognize that the “other” is also “you”.
• These are presented as direct experiences rather than concepts, and invite the reader to look and find these characteristics for themselves.

   

Being “Out of the Ordinary”: The Paradox of Humility and Divinity:

• Harding argues that true humility isn’t about self-deprecation, but about recognizing our inherent divinity. The path down (humility) and up (spiritual aspiration) are both necessary. He uses a “holed card” experiment and mirror experiment to illustrate that our “true self” is the boundless space we are looking out of and not the limited human-body which is stuck at the “mouth of the hole”
  • Quote: “See how your friends are stuck in their cards, stuck with their humanhood, and only you are clean through to your Godhood.”

   

The “Door” to God:

• The “hole in the card” is described as the “Door to God” – the opening through which we can perceive our true nature. He emphasizes that “the Alone goes through to the bride-chamber,” suggesting direct personal experience of the divine.
  • Quote: ““Many stand outside the door, but it’s the Alone that goes through to the bride-chamber.” Now provided you carried out conscientiously and successfully the two parts of that experiment, you – yes you… – are that One.”

    

Monocular Vision and the Cyclopean Eye:

• The concept of monocular vision challenges the ordinary sense of binocular vision. We are always, and have always been, “looking out of One Eye”. This single eye is much bigger than what we see. This is a visual metaphor for seeing beyond duality and into the unified, boundless “source” of all experience.
  • Quote: “You are wearing a monocle. Why are you wearing a monocle? Because you are looking out of One Eye, a Single Eye that’s much bigger than the monocle.”

    

Visiotherapy:

• Harding argues that as we realize our true nature, our awareness impacts the “inhabitants” of the hierarchical regions of our being (cells, molecules, atoms, etc). It emphasizes that the human body is a minute and temporary fragment of our cosmic body.
• He proposes that our “resurrection body” is not a post-mortem event, but a present reality and practicing the shift from the pseudo body to no body to your true body is Visiotherapy
  • Quote: “And Visiotherapy is practising the shift from one’s pseudo-body, through one’s no-body, to one’s true and total Body. Which is always in good nick.”

    

“I Live, Yet Not I”: The Divine Within:

• Harding explores St. Paul’s assertion that “Christ lives in me.” He contrasts a list of shortcomings, “reasons why I’m not Him” with a second list of attributes that reveal our innate divine nature, including inclusiveness, purity, stillness, omnipotence, omniscience, and the union of God and man.
• He suggests that the key to integrating the human and divine aspects of ourselves is to see that we are always seeing from the divine, which is an experience he refers to as post-mortem, even whilst living.
  • Quote: “Here, in toto, is a breath-taking but wonderfully serviceable apotheosis. Is there any other sort that‘s readily verifiable and makes sense? Right here, held up for my most searching inspection, is the real and ever-ready answer to all those volumes of convoluted and often bitter (and occasionally lethal) controversy about the Man who is God and the God who is Man, and how the two natures can merge yet remain distinct.”

    

Adventures in the Real Wonderland:

• Harding explores how direct perception of our “source” transforms our experience. He emphasizes that our true nature is not limited by our human identity and asks us to go by what we see and not what we think we see.
  • Quote: “And, warned by Zen Master Huang-Po that the wise go by what they see and the foolish by what they think they see, respect that Frontier from now on.”

    

“Belief in God”: A Radical Reinterpretation:

• Harding deconstructs common beliefs about God (everywhere yet nowhere, timeless, invisible, etc.) and then offers his own definition: a boundless, empty, full, and deathless “Receptacle.” He suggests that direct experience of this “One” is the true basis for knowing God. He concludes that we are embodied in the universe itself.
  • Quote: “You aren’t all there (as we say) till you are All Here, the Whole of things, the one strictly Indivisible Body which is your very own Physique.”
• Harding states that this One is the One Mind, and that our “narrowness” of mind is a necessity, otherwise we would be “swamped” by all other minds. He then concludes that we can indeed access “the thoughts of God” and that each of us experiences the miracle of our own existence in each moment of existence.
• The section concludes that “God is THE Person,” the First and Only Person that was or shall be, and that the only way to be a person is to be Him.

    

“Happy Rebirthday”: Spiritual Rebirth:

• Harding describes a three-stage cycle of birth: physical, social, and spiritual. The third is the “re-birth” that allows us to see the Kingdom of God. The purpose of all experiences from previous “wombs” is to facilitate this re-birth.
• He stresses that the ability to see that we are looking out of our immense single eye is what allows us to “see” the kingdom of God.
  • Quote: “You must see your way through from Womb 2 which is the human community into Womb 3 which is the spiritual community… The members of this spiritual community are scattered very thinly all over the world and talk the peculiar language of their respective religious traditions, but are nevertheless secretly and inwardly in constant touch with one another.”
• Harding then stresses the significance of the meaning-shift that occurs in the three wombs, the first is that our bodies go from useless to useful, then that our meaningless human lives become indispensable to our spiritual life, and that finally that our scattered spiritual adventures all unify in the Godhead.

    

“Good God – Bad Man”:

• Harding reinterprets the Christian doctrine that man is inherently bad, arguing that evil is a product of our false self-identification, while goodness is a product of our connection with God. He stresses that the good that we do is truly ours because it’s done by our true divine nature.

    

The Samson Solution

• Harding uses the Biblical story of Samson to metaphorically demonstrate that we can pull down all around us to re-centre ourselves and get back to our source.

    

Gord – The Story of a Lifelong Relationship:

• Harding delves into his life-long relationship with God/Lord, whom he referred to as “Gord”. He uses this relationship to question how we see. He then suggests that assigning sight to the eyes is not only idolatrous, but that it is unscientific. He gives a scientific breakdown of how light is processed from an object to our brain, and states that even science does not completely explain how the brain processes sight, so in reality only God can see. The result is that we are not bound to others, and we can therefore break free from the attachment they foster.
  • Quote: “Attributing sight to eyes isn’t only idolatrous and handicapping and scary. It’s unscientific.”

    

Mr. Smith Goes to Heaven:

• This story challenges the conception of God as a necessary, self-assured entity and redefines God as “the Being-that-shouldn’t-be,” an entity that is not God, but “No-God.” This “No-God” comes from nothingness, but is a source of everything. He is “empty for filling”, and the experience is one of wonder and astonishment.

    

Chiao’s Dream:

• The story centers on a monk struggling with the concept of emptiness (“form is emptiness”). The Buddha, in the dream, helps Chiao to experience the “form-that-is-void” as a real experience, not a conceptual one. Harding uses this narrative to teach the concepts of our pre-mortem, post-mortem, and cosmic bodies.
• He also stresses that the “resurrected one is already in Heaven” and describes how when looking out of one’s single eye one has the power to move one’s world. He then relates it to driving a car; “these very hands that peel potatoes in my kitchen peel Your Universe”.
• Harding concludes with an explanation of the importance of the breath and how the “deepest physical relaxation” comes from leaning back into the immensity of God.

    

Key Takeaways:

• Direct Experience is Paramount: Harding consistently emphasizes the need for direct experience over conceptual understanding or belief.
• Radical Shift in Self-Perception: The book challenges conventional notions of selfhood, inviting readers to see themselves as boundless, timeless, and divine.
• The Primacy of “Looking” over “Thinking”: Harding encourages readers to look at their present experience and see what is revealed, rather than relying on prior beliefs.
• The Paradoxical Nature of Reality: Harding embraces paradox, showing how seemingly contradictory ideas can coexist and illuminate the true nature of reality.
• Practical Application: The concepts are intended to be applied in daily life, transforming our experience and relationship with the world.

    

Conclusion:

Douglas Harding’s “To Be and Not To Be: That Is The Answer” offers a profound and potentially transformative framework for understanding self, reality, and divinity. It challenges readers to move beyond conceptual understanding and engage in a direct, experiential inquiry into their true nature. The work invites readers to actively participate in their own awakening, offering a path of self-discovery through rigorous self-examination. The central tenet remains consistent throughout: the answer is available, right here, in the simple act of seeing.